Different contexts, same concerns? Wood gap and forest restoration in Indonesia and Cameroon

The gap between demand and supply of sustainable wood, in countries rich forest with a poor governance, is one of the major causes of forest degradation. This phenomenon, which is combining with other major forest degradation causes as agriculture and fires, should not be overlooked as it results in dire deforestation. In Indonesia, uncontrolled development of wood industries, led to a growing wood demand disconnected with sustainable forest management capacity. This started in 70s with log exports development, followed by the plywood industry in the 80s', pulp and paper in the 90s' and the forest conversion to agro-plantations. Tree cover in permanent forest lands dropped from 113.1 million ha to 87.4 million ha, or by 23% in 34 years, from 1982 to 2016. In Cameroon, the growing demand for timber is accelerated by domestic market paired with the population growth above 2.5% per year. Domestic timber and firewood are sourced from poorly managed non-permanent and permanent forest. The rate of deforestation at the national level remains low (0.2 % per year), but deforestation is rapid around cities and along roads. Comparing the two countries, some similarities have been identified, I) in each case wood gaps are filled by illegal practices, 2) there are miss-perceptions about sustainable wood supplies from forests, 3) governments are now planning forest restoration and 4) low wood prices are discouraging investment into forest plantations, secondary forest silviculture and forest restoration. Finally, we compare how, governments are addressing wood gap and forest restoration

Gouvernance des forêts par les collectivités territoriales en Afrique centrale. Étendue et effectivité

La foresterie communale est un modèle de gestion des ressources forestières qui se déploie en Afrique centrale depuis plus d'une décennie. Le concept est juridiquement consacré dans six pays sur les dix qui composent l'espace géopolitique de la COMIFAC et traduit l'ambition des États d'associer les collectivités territoriales décentralisées à la gestion des ressources naturelles de manière à en faire des pôles de développement. Le présent chapitre fait le point sur les progrès de la foresterie communale et montre que le développement de ce concept a tiré avantage du contexte juridique et institutionnel lié aux processus de décentralisation politique qui sont actuellement en cours dans la sous-région. Globalement les niveaux de mise en oeuvre de la foresterie communale sont assez contrastés. La revue des différentes expériences montre que les dispositifs légaux réglementaires sont selon le cas dépourvus d'effectivité matérielle, inadaptés ou balbutiants. Dans les pays qui mettent au moins partiellement le concept en oeuvre, les expériences réussies reposent sur le soutien actif des partenaires techniques et financiers. En conclusion, le chapitre suggère des voies pour améliorer l'effectivité du concept de foresterie communale. (Résumé d'auteur

Could IFM REDD+ projects incentivize forest concessionaires to reduce greenhouse gases emissions in Central Africa? A lesson from the FORAFAMA project. [P-3331-01]

Improved Forest Management (IFM) is an activity eligible to the mechanism of Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+). In this context, IFM refers to activities that increase carbon stock on managed forest lands by changing forest management practices. As nearly 20 millions of hectares are now managed in the Congo Basin forests, it is a strategy of prime importance in climate policies of Central African states. However, the carbon benefit is generally based on a decrease of felling intensity that means severe income shortfalls for the logger. The extent to which carbon storage could compensate losses of timber income is a decisive factor in the feasibility of REDD+ projects. Given the few number of scientific studies on this subject, and the even fewer number of pilot projects that have been implemented, this issue is still highly in debate. To assess the potentialities for emissions reductions of IFM REDD+ projects, and to evaluate their financial feasibility, we explored a broad range of scenarios for reducing logging intensity in a typical export-oriented forest concession in Central Africa. For each scenario and for several carbon accounting approaches, we calculated timber income shortfalls and carbon benefit to estimate internal rates of return and break-even prices of carbon credits. As part of the project of "Support for the sustainable management of forests in the Congo Basin and the Brazilian AmazonBasin" (FORAFAMA), a partnership with several forest concessionaires has allowed us to incorporate forest, industrial and economic factors. Parameters uncertainties are explicitly taken into account through a Monte-Carlo method. We predicted that current voluntary markets conditions do not permit the implementation of IFM REDD+ projects in Central African concessions. Notable exceptions to this statement are Logged to Protected Forest (LTPF) projects, that correspond to an extreme case of a complete cessation of logging. In this case, the non-building of road networks results in substantial savings. The feasibility of other IFM REDD+ projects is particularly constrained by the current approach to addressing the risk of non-permanence. As an example, under Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the maximum number of Voluntary Certified Units (VCU) available to projects including harvesting, cannot exceed the long-term average carbon benefit. In the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an other approach to deal with non-permanency had been proposed with temporary Certified Emission Reductions (tCER). A tCER expires at the end of the commitment period following its issue. Such an approach, that can allow to value the storage of carbon even on short time periods, is much more flexible and adapted to permanent timber production tropical forests. However, even under this accounting method, IFM REDD+ projects prove to be unattractive for Central African timber companies as their feasibility remains conditioned to a major reduction of logging intensity. Otherwise, projects are severely penalized by transaction costs and low carbon differentials. Our work suggests that current methodologies of voluntary standards are not well appropriate to include IFM within REDD+. Instead of incentivizing to conciliate timber production and carbon sequestration, IFM REDD+ projects rather encourages forest concessionaires to value either carbon or timber exclusively, hence acceptability and additionality issues. To promote the deployment of a truly climate-smart forest management, the incentive system should focus more on practice changes than only on the result expressed in permanently avoided emissions. (Texte intégral

Les forêts du Bassin du Congo - Forêts et changements climatiques

L'édition 2015 de l'Etat des Forêts du Bassin du Congo est un numéro publié spécialement pour la 21ème Conférence des Parties à Paris. En effet, il est envisagé qu'au cours de cette conférence un accord mondial sur le climat puisse être conclu par la communauté internationale. Pour soutenir leur participation à la Conférence, les pays de la COMIFAC avaient planifié plusieurs activités au cours de l'année 2015. Parmi ces activités, il avait été décidé de publier un rapport spécial sur les forêts et les changements climatiques en Afrique centrale. Ce rapport vient donc en support pour les négociations de Paris en mettant l'accent tant sur le rôle de la forêt tropicale dans l'atténuation des changements du climat, que sur les impacts probables de ces changements sur l'adaptation des populations et des écosystèmes en Afrique centrale. Ce rapport spécial a bénéficié d'un support financier majeur de l'Union européenne, du Centre de recherche forestière internationale (CIFOR) et de l'Agence Française de Développement (AFD). La coordination de la rédaction a été confiée au Secrétariat Exécutif de la COMIFAC et à l'OFAC avec l'appui du CIFOR et du CIRAD. Plus d'une trentaine d'auteurs ont participé à la rédaction des six chapitres qui constituent ce rapport